Postcolonial studies, colonization and East Germany -- The Federal Republic's 'Orient'? Dealing officially with the GDR -- 'Writing back' : dealing with the Stasi in literature -- Productive hybridity : nostalgia and the GDR in film -- Re-exoticizing the normal : the Ostalgie industry and German television -- A postcolonial culture? Surfing for the GDR in cyberspace.
Cooke maps out the problematic path of German national identity as it struggles to deal with the legacy of division. Drawing on postcolonial theory, he argues that the East has been defined as the West's exotic other and shows how this stereotype has been vigorously challenged.
This work considers the problems of the socialist legacy left by the unification of Germany, as East Germans adjusted to uncertainties in employment, education, family life and immigration.
The transformation of east Germany since unification has wrought vast changes in the economy and in society and left deep scars as the types of social protection offered by the centralised socialism of the previous regime gave way to uncertainties and individualised life chances. Social Transformation in Eastern Germany investigates the deep economic and social processes which east Germany has undergone, highlighting the restructuring, the social impacts and the stresses of adjustment experienced by key social groups whose workplace and social context has been recast almost out of recognition since 1990.
Analyzes the development from the divided to the unified Germany and asks to what extent East Germans have adopted a national identity in line with that of the West Germans. The text examines such identity markers as attitudes toward territory, economics, ethnicity and mass culture.
This book explores the nature of the dramatic growth in a distinct sense of East German identity in the years since the events that led to formal unification in 1990. While it is problematic to see 'East Germanness' as a singular and homogenous identity, it can be perceived as a distinctive phenomenon and a level of identification that exists alongside local, regional and national identities. The essays in this volume hope to challenge the commonly held misconception that East German regional identity is a problem that needs to be overcome in the process of unification. Through analyses of the social, political and cultural behaviour of East Germans and their perception of their own place in German society, this volume makes a complex and nuanced contribution to discussions on German national identity and the unification process.
This book provides a multinational history of German reunification based on empirical work by leading scholars. The reunification of Germany in 1989-90 was one of the most unexpected and momentous events of the twentieth century. Embedded within the wider process of the end of the Cold War, it contributed decisively to the dramatic changes that followed: the end of the division of Europe, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the origins of NATO’s eastward expansion and, not least, the creation of the European Union. Based on the wealth of evidence that has become available from many countries involved, and relying on the most recent historiography, this collection takes into account the complex interaction of multinational processes that were instrumental in shaping German reunification in the pivotal years 1989-90. The volume brings together renowned international scholars whose recent works, based on their research in multiple languages and sources, have contributed significantly to the history of the end of the Cold War and of German reunification. The resulting volume represents an important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of a significant chapter in recent history. This book will be of much interest to students of German politics, Cold war history, international and multinational history and IR in general.
With German reunification and the demise of the German Democratic Republic in 1990, East German historians and their traditions of historiography were removed from mainstream discourse in Germany and relegated to the periphery. By the mid-1990s, few GDR-trained historians remained in academia. These developments led to a greater degree of intellectual pluralism, yet marginalized many accomplished scholars. East German Historians since Reunification assesses what was gained and lost in the process of dissolving and remaking GDR institutions of historical scholarship. The collection combines primary and secondary sources: younger scholars offer analyses of East German historiography, while senior scholars who lived through the dismantling process provide firsthand accounts. Contributors address broad trends in scholarship as well as particular subfields and institutions. What unites them is a willingness to think critically about the achievements and shortcomings of GDR historiography, and its fate after German reunification.
